The Consubstantiality of the Son, Part 2
John 5:24–30 presents Jesus responding to the Jewish charge that he made himself equal with God — not by retreating, but by affirming it through two divine functions: authority over life and authority over judgment. This sermon works through the declaration of that authority in eternal life (vv. 24–25), the rationale grounded in the eternal generation of the Son from the Father (vv. 26–27), and the promise of his authority on the final day of judgment (vv. 28–30, previewed). Central to the argument is the doctrine of consubstantiality — that the Son shares the one simple undivided divine essence with the Father from all eternity — which grounds both his power to effectually call dead sinners to life and his right to preside as judge of all the earth. The sermon calls hearers to receive Christ by faith, since only God himself can save sinners, and it is the voice of the Son of God alone that awakens the spiritually dead.
The 4th Commandment (Part 3)
The Christian Sabbath is grounded in both creation and redemption, and the New Testament establishes Sunday — the Lord's Day — as the day of corporate worship by precedent and pattern rather than by bare precept. This third installment in a study of the Fourth Commandment examines three apostolic texts (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1–2, Revelation 1:10) that demonstrate the early church's practice of gathering on the first day of the week, then turns to two alleged anti-Sabbatarian passages (Romans 14 and Galatians 5) to show that neither addresses the weekly Sabbath but rather deals with Jewish calendar observances and the question of justification by works. The moral principle of one day in seven set apart for God remains binding on New Covenant believers, while the positive law has lawfully shifted the day from Saturday to Sunday in light of Christ's resurrection.
Live Stream - Feb 06, 2022
John 5:16–23 presents Christ's response to the Jewish charge that he made himself equal with God — not a denial, but an unequivocal affirmation of his consubstantiality with the Father. Working through the opposition of the Jews in verses 16–18 and the Son's relation to the Father in verses 19–23, this exposition demonstrates that Christ's appeal to the Father's works, love, power over life and death, and universal judgment together establish that he possesses the same divine essence as the Father. The sermon presses this truth toward its most urgent application: to reject the Son is to have no Father, and eternal life belongs only to those who honour the Son as they honour the Father.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the crowning proof that the Father accepted the Son's atoning work as a full satisfaction for sin. Expounding Matthew 28:1–10, this sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb — the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, and the commission given to the first witnesses — and then the appearance of the risen Lord to those same women. The resurrection is not myth or fable but attested history, with details such as the folded burial cloth, the terrified guards, and the forthright identification of women as the primary witnesses all serving the integrity of the gospel record. The empty tomb grounds the Christian's confidence in the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ, and it calls every hearer to seek the risen Lord without fear.
The Consubstantiality of the Son, Part 1
John 5:16–23 records the Jewish charge that Jesus made himself equal with God — and Christ's unequivocal affirmation of that charge. Working through verses 16–23, this sermon demonstrates that Jesus responds not by correcting a misunderstanding but by confirming, through four lines of argument, that he is consubstantial with the Father: sharing the same works, the same love, the same life-giving power, and the same sovereign rule. The stakes are ultimate — to dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father, and to lack the Son is to lack God entirely.
If you aborted your baby, there is hope!
Abortion is a violation of the sixth commandment, but the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin — including this one. Preaching the law faithfully means following it immediately with the gospel, offering the forgiveness and rest Christ promises to every sinner who comes to him. The church's duty is not only to resist abortion politically and socially but to herald the sovereign grace of God to those broken by guilt and regret. There is hope in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The 4th Commandment (Part 2)
The fourth commandment's demand for Sabbath observance does not dissolve at the close of the Old Covenant; it runs through redemptive history and finds its New Covenant expression in the Lord's Day. Working through Matthew 5, Matthew 12, and Hebrews 4, this sermon argues that Christ upheld the moral law in both doctrine and practice, that his resurrection on the first day of the week grounds the shift from Saturday to Sunday, and that Hebrews 4:9's use of 'sabbatismos' constitutes a positive, unequivocal New Testament Sabbath ordinance for the people of God. The moral principle — one day in seven set apart for worship — is trans-covenantal; only its ceremonial aspect, the specific day, is conditioned by the covenant one inhabits. Believers are called to approach the Lord's Day not as a burden but as a gift that functions as a weekly foretaste and down payment of the eternal rest secured by Christ's finished work.
Live Stream - Jan 30, 2022
Matthew 25:31-46 presents the final judgment as a separation of the righteous from the wicked, with the works of the righteous serving as evidence of saving faith rather than the ground of their justification. The sermon argues that the sheep and goats are already what they are before they arrive at the judgment seat — the sheep enter the prepared kingdom because they are blessed of the Father, not because their charity earned them entry. Justification is by faith alone, but that faith is never alone; it is always accompanied by all other saving graces, including the good works Christ acknowledges at that great day. The hearer is urged to believe the gospel now, for the one who says 'come to me' in this life will say 'depart from me' to those who refuse him on that final day.
The Judgment Throne of Christ
Matthew 25:31–46 presents not a parable but a prophecy: the Son of Man, identified as Daniel's divine king, will sit on the throne of glory and separate all nations into the righteous and the wicked. The passage is examined to show that it does not overturn justification by faith alone, but rather demonstrates that those justified by grace will inevitably produce the good works that serve as fruits and evidences of saving faith. The sermon sets the evidentiary nature of works — care for Christ's brethren — against any works-righteousness reading, drawing on Galatians 5:6, Ephesians 2:8–10, James 2, and the 1689 London Baptist Confession to ground the argument. Hearers are called to confess Christ now, since the same Lord who bids 'come' in his earthly ministry will bid 'come' or 'depart' on the day of judgment.
The Healing at Bethesda
John 5:1–15 presents the healing of a paralyzed man at Bethesda as a display of Christ's sovereign initiative, mercy, and power. The man's 38-year infirmity — physical, helpless, and rooted in personal sin — mirrors the spiritual condition of every sinner apart from grace: unable to save himself and without recourse. Christ seeks the man out from a great multitude, issues a word of command that effects immediate and complete healing, and then addresses the deeper need by calling him to repentance. Against this glory, the opposition of the Jewish leaders — fixating on Sabbath casuistry while ignoring a manifest work of God — warns against a religion so narrowly fastidious that it cannot acknowledge divine mercy.
Chapter 8 - Of Christ, the Mediator (part 1)
Chapter 8 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession opens with the pre-temporal appointment of Christ as mediator in the covenant of redemption, then moves to the historical stages of that mediatorial work, beginning with the incarnation. The confession affirms that the Son of God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, took on true human nature — with all its essential properties and common infirmities, yet without sin — so that two whole and distinct natures are inseparably united in one person: the hypostatic union. Drawing on John 1, Hebrews 2, 4, and 7, Galatians 4, and the Chalcedonian Definition of 451, the study traces the biblical and creedal foundations of Reformed Christology, and shows how the confession's language connects the Reformed Baptist tradition to the settled Christological consensus of the ancient church.
The 4th Commandment (Part 1)
The fourth commandment, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy' (Exodus 20:8–11), is grounded not in Mosaic legislation alone but in the creational ordinance of Genesis 2:1–3, where God's sabbathing after six days of work establishes the one-in-seven pattern binding upon all his image-bearers. The Deuteronomy 5 parallel adds redemption alongside creation as a second rationale, and these twin foundations carry into the New Covenant. Surveying Genesis 2–4, Exodus 16, Mark 2, Isaiah 56 and 58, and Jeremiah 31, this exposition demonstrates the trans-covenantal utility of the Decalogue and argues that the Sabbath is not a burdensome restriction but a gracious gift through which God's people enter into fellowship with their Creator.
Clip: If you aborted your baby, there is hope!
The sixth commandment exposes abortion as a grievous violation of God's law, but the law's condemnation does not have the final word. This clip applies the gospel directly to those who have participated in abortion, grounding the offer of forgiveness in the atoning blood of Christ, the faithfulness of God to cleanse all unrighteousness, and the universal call of Christ to come to him. The church's responsibility is to preach both law and gospel together — the law that wounds and the gospel that heals.
Sanctity of Life
The Sixth Commandment — 'You shall not murder' (Exodus 20:13) — extends its protection to the pre-born, grounding the prohibition against abortion in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God. This sermon works through three lines of argument: the precise meaning of the Hebrew word for murder, the consistent biblical testimony to the sanctity of human life at every stage from conception to old age, and the specific case law of Exodus 21:22–23, which affords the pre-born equal legal protection under the lex talionis. The sermon closes with a call to press the law upon a culture that celebrates abortion, while proclaiming that the blood of Christ is sufficient to forgive all who have participated in this sin.
Redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ
God is an impartial judge who will call every person to account for every transgression of his law, and no corruptible thing — no silver, gold, religious ritual, or moral effort — can satisfy the demands of that justice. Redemption comes exclusively through the precious blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world, whose death made propitiation for sin and whose perfect obedience is imputed to the believer's account. Drawing from 1 Peter 1:17–21, this sermon expounds the condition, command, reason, and result of the Christian's call to conduct life in reverent fear: not a slavish terror born of misunderstanding God's character, but a reverent awe that flows from knowing the God who is both perfectly just and perfectly merciful. The believer's ongoing faith and hope are to rest continually in God — grounded in Christ's resurrection, confirmed by his ascension to glory, and oriented toward the certain hope of the new heaven and new earth.
The Depravity of Man
Romans 1:18–32 presents the universal human condition as one of willful suppression of God's self-disclosure in creation, resulting in inexcusability before a holy God. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the revelation of divine wrath, the reason for that wrath in humanity's idolatrous exchange of the Creator for the creature, and the nature of God's judgment as a punitive giving-over of sinners to the very sins they pursued. The sermon argues that the preaching of the law — including the full weight of human depravity — is indispensable to the proclamation of the gospel, because sinners must understand their ruin before they will look to the remedy of blood atonement in Christ alone.
The Seventh Commandment
The seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery' (Deuteronomy 5:18), governs not merely the act of adultery but the full range of sexual conduct God defines in Scripture. Preached against the backdrop of Canada's Bill C-4, this sermon grounds sexual ethics in the creation order of Genesis 2, expounds twelve prohibited acts — from adultery and fornication through homosexuality, transgenderism, and pornography — and confronts the state's attempt to criminalise biblical teaching on sexuality. The law is preached so that sinners will see their need for Christ, whose blood alone washes, sanctifies, and justifies those who come to Him in faith.
Chapter 7, Of God's Covenant, part 2
1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 7, paragraph 3 sets out three theological covenants — the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption (pactum salutis), and the covenant of works — as the structural architecture of all Scripture. This sermon expounds each in turn, demonstrating from texts in Genesis, Isaiah, Hosea, Galatians, and Romans that the covenant of grace is founded on an eternal transaction between the Father and the Son, and that it is God's provision for sinners rendered incapable of acceptance with God since Adam's fall. The covenant of works is shown to be indispensable to a right understanding of justification: without it, the imputed righteousness of Christ collapses into either moralism or antinomianism, and the distinction between forgiveness and imputation is lost. Covenant theology is pressed not as academic machinery but as the very ground of the believer's comfort, assurance, and stability before God.
Clip: God isn't crippled, hindered, silent, or absent
The sovereignty of God over creation and providence is the proper ground of confident, bold prayer. Drawing on Acts 4 and Psalm 2, this excerpt shows how the apostolic church prayed not to a God diminished by circumstance but to the God who made and governs all things — including the threats of the Sanhedrin against the early church. The vantage point of God's absolute sovereignty is what makes petition coherent and emboldening rather than desperate.
Clip: How to pray for civil government during persecution
When facing governmental hostility, the church is called not only to endure but to pray with theological precision about civil authority. Drawing from Acts 4, 1 Timothy 2, Proverbs 21, and Psalm 74, this sermon excerpt identifies three legitimate petitions for civil government — redemption, restraint, and removal — and argues that each is grounded in Scripture and consistent with covenant love. The decisive application is that alongside praying outwardly for rulers, believers must pray inwardly for grace to respond rightly to persecution and oppression.
The Healing of Naaman
The healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 exposes a pagan military commander who possesses everything except the one thing he needs: cleansing from leprosy and reconciliation to the living God. The passage traces the providence of God in orchestrating Naaman's encounter with Elisha, Naaman's fury at the simplicity of the cure, his genuine conversion and humble confession of faith in Yahweh alone, and finally the greed of Gehazi, whose attempt to put a price on God's free grace earns him the very disease Naaman was healed of. The sermon presses toward these gospel applications: sovereign grace humbles its recipients rather than inflating them, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone with nothing added, and God's grace is not a commodity to be bought, manipulated, or supplemented with human achievement.
The Healing of the Nobleman's Son
John 4:43–54 records the second sign Jesus performed in Galilee: the healing of a royal official's son from a distance of sixteen miles. The passage exposes both the deficient faith that demands visible proof before believing and the sufficient power of Christ's spoken word, which heals without physical presence. The nobleman's earnest intercession for his dying son becomes a pointed application for parents to implore God persistently for their children's spiritual wellbeing. The sign itself points beyond physical healing to the life given to all who believe the word of Christ.
Chapter 7 - Of God's Covenant
1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 7 traces the biblical and theological architecture of God's covenant: from the necessity of divine condescension (paragraph 1), through the gracious character of the covenant of grace (paragraph 2), to the three theological covenants — grace, redemption, and works — and their progressive historical unfolding (paragraph 3). The session contrasts covenant theology with dispensationalism and New Covenant theology as competing hermeneutical frameworks, argues that the Old (Mosaic) Covenant functioned as a republication of the covenant of works rather than an administration of the covenant of grace, and demonstrates from Genesis 3:15 through Jeremiah 31 and Matthew 26 that all historical covenants advance a single promise of redemption finally and fully disclosed in the new covenant inaugurated by Christ. The practical payoff is a robustly confessional case for believers-only baptism: the new covenant community is defined by inward regeneration, universal knowledge of the Lord, and definitive forgiveness — marks that exclude the external-and-internal covenant structure required to justify paedobaptism.
Clip: Flyover of Covenant Theology (2LBC Chapter 7)
Covenant theology serves as the central hermeneutical architecture of Scripture, and this introductory flyover situates it against competing systems — dispensationalism and New Covenant theology — before tracing its practical consequences for continuity between the Testaments, the role of ethnic Israel, the subjects of baptism, and the law of God in the new covenant. Two key distinctions between the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession are noted: the particular Baptists' omission of an explicit covenant of works statement in Chapter 7, and their refusal to identify the Old Covenant as an administration of the covenant of grace. The sermon locates covenant theology not merely in academic method but in pastoral comfort, grounding the blood-bought people of God in the assurance that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
Clip: How to pray for civil government during persecution
How should the church pray for civil government, especially under persecution? Drawing from Acts 4:29, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Proverbs 21:1, Psalm 74:11, and 1 Corinthians 13, this sermon clip presents three biblically grounded petitions — redemption, restraint, and removal — as legitimate and distinct prayers the people of God may bring before the Lord concerning their civil rulers. The clip closes by returning to the early church's example in Acts 4, where the believers, rather than invoking judgment on the Sanhedrin, turned their petition inward, asking God to make them faithful witnesses in the midst of opposition.
The Burial of Jesus
The burial of Jesus in Matthew 27:57–66 is examined across two movements: the burial proper (vv. 57–61) and the security measures taken at the tomb (vv. 62–66). Against both the swoon theory and ancient Jewish counter-testimony that the disciples stole the body, the sermon marshals the apologetic force of the sealed, guarded, newly-hewn tomb to demonstrate that the resurrection overcame every human precaution. The burial also carries weight in four theological categories: it confirms the reality of Christ's death, marks the final act of his humiliation as the last Adam, demonstrates his conquest of death, and strips the grave of its paralyzing power for all who belong to him.
The Prayer of the Persecuted Church
When the early church faced arrest and official prohibition of gospel preaching, its first instinct was corporate prayer — not political agitation or fearful compliance. This exposition of Acts 4:23–31 traces the structure of that prayer: an invocation of God as sovereign Creator, an exposition of Psalm 2 applied to the conspiracy against Christ and his people, and a pointed supplication not for safety or comfort but for boldness to declare the word. The sermon calls the contemporary church to the same God-centred prayer, understanding persecution as something always beneath the sovereign hand of God, and faithfulness in proclamation as the unchanging vocation of every Christian steward.
Clip: God isn't crippled, hindered, silent, or absent
The early church in Acts 4:23–31 prayed not as though God had been caught off guard by persecution, but as though the God who created and governs all things remained sovereignly in control of even the threats of the Sanhedrin. This clip draws out the church's invocation of divine sovereignty as the theological ground of confident petition: to pray is to address the one with absolute ability to fulfill what he has promised and purposed. The application is direct — believers do not come to a God who is crippled, hindered, or absent, but to the sovereign Lord who holds the hearts of all men in his hand.
Clip - Sinners, don't despair!
Drawing from the account of the Samaritan woman and villagers in John 4, this clip addresses those who remain outside of saving grace with a direct and tender appeal: do not despair, but come to Christ. The Evangelist John wrote his Gospel precisely for this purpose — that readers might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in His name.
Christ reigns over Biden, Trudeau, and all rulers of the earth
Isaiah 9:6–7 declares that the government rests on the shoulders of the promised Son, and this sermon clip presses that claim against the tendency to domesticate Christ as a non-threatening infant. Drawing on John 18, Matthew 28, Ephesians 1, and Revelation 1, the preacher argues that Christ's kingship is not a future hope but a present reality — he is ruler over the kings of the earth now. The application is direct: the church needs a fresh recovery of Christ's universal sovereignty as the only stable ground of confidence in discouraging times.